Occupier's liability for grass verge

Maynard v Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council [2011] EWCA Civ 1694; 21 December 2011

Outside the claimant’s house was a grass verge across which ran two footpaths to the road. In August 2006, the claimant and her family were walking to her car on the road. The claimant walked across the verge when she fell and twisted her left ankle. She issued proceedings against the local authority alleging her fall had been caused by her foot going into a hole in the grass. She claimed the presence of the hole amounted to a breach of the authority’s duty of care as occupier of the grass verge. The authority accepted it was the occupier and owed the claimant a common duty of care. It accepted that she had fallen on that day and roughly in the place alleged. However, it denied any breach of duty and the presence of any hole capable of amounting to a danger.